With 3.8 seconds left in last season's regular season finale, North Carolina point guard Ed Cota stood at the line with his team down two and an opportunity to tie the game. Cota, an 82-percent free-throw shooter, missed them both as Duke went on to claim a 77-75 victory.
Those two free throws, however, will likely not be the defining moments of Cota's Tar Heel career, at least in his eyes.
"When I go to the line [tonight], I know [the crowd] is going to talk trash," he said with a smile, "but it won't bother me any. Last year, you can say that those were some key free throws, but really the game should have never gotten to that point. We should have put that game away."
The junior point guard has a list of achievements with which few players in the country can compete. This season he is doing everything for the Tar Heels, but one thing is for sure, he still loves to pass.
He leads the ACC in assists this season, just as he did his first two years in the conference. Last season, he broke Kenny Smith's 13-year-old UNC record for assists in one season by 30, as well as setting a new mark for assists per game, eclipsing Phil Ford's 22-year record.
It might be expected that his numbers would have decreased significantly with the loss of Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter, but that has not been the case. He has answered his role as a scorer for the team, raising his average to 10.6 points per game.
Despite this new addition to his game, Cota's assists per game average has fallen by a mere 10th of an assist, although his turnovers are up due to his position as the only true playmaker on the team.
Cota, 1997 ACC Rookie of the Year, is essential to the development of younger players such as Brendan Haywood, Jason Capel and Kris Lang. His penetration frees up the rest of his team for good looks at the basket.
"A good point guard can make or break you," Haywood said. "A point guard that knows the game and recognizes things like Ed Cota does can make it very easy for you. It can make you look better."
One feature of Cota's game that has often been overlooked and could be key for tonight's matchup is his defense. He leads the team in steals, and he has only committed 20 fouls in 20 games, despite playing nearly 35 minutes a night.
In the NCAA tournament last season, Cota had the task of defending two of this season's premier point guards, Mateen Cleaves and Khalid El-Amin. The Tar Heel playmaker held Cleaves to just 7-of-21 shooting and El-Amin to only two assists.
The most reliable aspect of Cota's game is that he is at his best in the game's final minutes. When Duke closed UNC's big lead to four last year in Chapel Hill, Cota either scored or assisted in five of the next six possessions, expanding the gap once again in the Heels' 97-73 win.
"All my turnovers usually come early," Cota said. "You never see me throwing the ball away in crunch time, like the last five minutes of the game."
Cota has not disappointed in the final minutes of games this season either. He nailed a three-pointer with 3:53 left against Georgia to break a tie at 55. He buried six straight free throws down the stretch versus Purdue, hit four free throws in the final 72 seconds to seal the win over Stanford and drove for a game-winning layup with 1.5 seconds left against Old Dominion.
"I know that the ball is going to be in my hands, it's just a matter of me making the right decisions out there," he said.
One might think heading back to Durham tonight is the last thing Cota would want to do, but that is far from the case. He looks forward to the challenge of playing solidly in a hostile environment. And he loves Cameron.
"I like when the crowd is hyped," he said. "That's one of the main reasons I like playing in Cameron. I wish our gym was like that, a small gym where everybody's just standing up the whole game. That's great."
If there is anything that is to be gathered from Cota's past two-and-a-half years, it is that he always comes prepared to play for the big games. It is no coincidence that he had career highs in points and rebounds against Stanford in November.
Cota has had an impressive run with UNC thus far and no one should expect that to deteriorate anytime soon.
"It's a good accomplishment for myself to have my name said in the same sentence with Phil Ford and Kenny Smith," he said. "Those are great players. But I don't really concentrate much on that. I just want to be the best player that I can be. Hopefully, everybody will remember me as Ed Cota."
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